EU election results: Tories and Labour suffer heavy losses as Brexit party tops scoreboard
Labour and the Tories have suffered a humiliating defeat in the European elections, having haemorrhaged votes to Nigel's Farage's Brexit party which won 29 seats in the European parliament.
The Tories had one of their worst nights in electoral history, winning just four seats in the European Parliament and coming fifth place overall. Labour also performed badly, winning just 10 seats.
The Brexit party topped the scoreboard with 31.6 per cent of the vote, while the Lib Dems, who campaigned to stay in the EU, came second with 16 seats and 20.3 per cent of the vote.
Read more: Brexit party set to destroy Tories with 37 per cent of EU elections vote
The results have been seen as the electorate's clear rejection of the two main establishment parties in favour of those who had either a clear pro-Brexit or anti-Brexit message.
Results
| Party | Number of seats won | Vote share (per cent) |
| Brexit party | 29 | 31.6 |
| Lib Dem | 16 | 20.3 |
| Labour | 10 | 14.1 |
| Greens | 7 | 12.1 |
| Conservative | 4 | 9.1 |
| Plaid Cymru | 1 | 1 |
| SNP | 0 | 3.5 |
| Change UK | 0 | 3.4 |
| Ukip | 0 | 3.3 |
Prime Minister Theresa May announced on Friday that she would step down as Tory leader on 7 June, largely in anticipation of poor EU elections results and under pressure from her party to do so.
The backlash against the Tories was widely expected in the wake of its failure to deliver Brexit on the agreed date of 29 March. After May struggled to get her Brexit deal through parliament three times, she was forced to ask for an extension to Article 50 – the mechanism that allows the UK to leave the EU – until 31 October.
Farage told the BBC that the results meant his party should be sat at the table in the Brexit negotiations with the EU. “I absolutely insist that we do have a mandate to now be part of that team," he said. "We are quite happy to help the government get ready for 31 October."
Boris Johnson, the former London mayor and front runner in the race to become Tory leader, said the voters had delivered a "crushing rebuke" to the government and both major parties for having "flagrantly failed to carry out their instructions".
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell tweeted that Labour was unable to "hide from the hit we took last night".
Can’t hide from hit we took last night.Bringing people together when there’s such a divide was never going to be easy. Now we face prospect of Brexiteer extremist as Tory leader & threat of no deal, we must unite our party & country by taking issue back to people in a public vote
— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) May 27, 2019
Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thorberry said the party should now back a second referendum and campaign in to stay in the EU.
"We went into an election where the most important issue was what was our view on leaving the European Union and we were not clear about it," she said.
Read more: Michael Gove becomes eighth Tory MP to officially join leadership race
Meanwhile, the Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem deputy leader, said her party had enjoyed their best ever EU election results.
Scotland & Northern Ireland still to declare, but @LibDems have had our BEST EVER EU ELECTION RESULTS. Congrats to our teams up & down the UK – we couldn't have done it without your hard work!
The fight to #StopBrexit isn't over though, so join us: https://t.co/CQhC0SEu43
— Jo Swinson (@joswinson) May 27, 2019
Results in EU states mirrored those in the UK, with the big centre-right and centre-left blocs losing their combined majority in the parliament, as smaller parties of Liberals, Greens and nationalists gained ground.